The Dreamlife of Bridges

The main characters of The Dreamlife of Bridges by Robert Strandquist (Anvil Press), also suffer through mental collapse and find themselves outside society on the west coast. Both Leo and June bottom out in the ways of their respective sexes: for Leo, the loss of shelter, dignity and his sense of worth as a man, for June, the loss of custody of her child and the brand of an unfit mother. The bridges of Vancouver offer them at turns the spirituality of release and the basic physicality of shelter as they work their way up and down through the urban castes of the pink-collar ghetto, non-union labour, semi-criminal employment and all-out homelessness. Strandquist offers a different view of a familiar setting and reminds us that the bottom is not necessarily the end.